EAST LANSING — The stability of Mark Dantonio’s coaching staff is being tested.

USA Today’s Dan Wolken reported Wednesday that Michigan State associate head coach and co-defensive coordinator Harlon Barnett is engaged in “ongoing conversations” with Florida State about the Seminoles’ open defensive coordinator position.

Barnett, who turned 51 on Tuesday and played defensive back for the Spartans in 1986-89, has been part of Dantonio’s staff since 2004 at Cincinnati. He returned to MSU with Dantonio in 2007 as defensive backs coach and received a promotion to co-defensive coordinator alongside Mike Tressel when Pat Narduzzi left for Pitt following the 2014 season. Dantonio added associate head coach to Barnett’s title last June.

Florida State hired new head coach Willie Taggart away from Oregon last month. Charles Kelly, the Seminoles’ defensive coordinator under Jimbo Fisher (who left for Texas A&M), was hired late last month by Tennessee.

According to a USA Today database of coaches salary, Kelly made $858,000 at FSU this season and was the 22nd-higest paid assistant coach in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Barnett ranked 137th among assistant coaches nationally at $452,570, while his fellow co-coordinator at MSU, Tressel, makes $450,370.

MSU’s defense this season ranked No. 7 at 297.6 yards per game and No. 17 in pass efficiency defense. The Spartans gave up the 10th-fewest first downs in the FBS and ranked 18th in third-down conversion defense at 32.8 percent.

Narduzzi, who made $907,033 in his final year as MSU’s defensive coordinator, was the last Dantonio assistant to leave. Offensive line coach Mark Staten interviewed for the Division II Northern Michigan head coaching job in December 2016 before withdrawing from consideration, and Dantonio added assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator to Staten’s title in June.

Barnett, Staten, Tressel and co-offensive coordinator Dave Warner are the only four coaches remaining from Dantonio’s first staff in 2007. However, eight of his nine current assistants have been together since 2013, with defensive ends coach/special teams coordinator Mark Snyder joining them in 2015 after Narduzzi left.